1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a positioning system for a movable body, such as a car, for providing geographical information to a user, such as, a driver, and more specifically, to a positioning system having a simulated running mode where the user can experience a simulated running on a displayed map.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent positioning systems, a position of a movable body, such as a car, can be measured or derived using signals from satellites employed, such as, in the Global Positioning System.
One type of those positioning systems has a position measuring mode and a simulated running mode, one of which is selectable by a user's key operation. In the position measuring mode, a position of the movable body is derived based on signals from the satellites and displayed along with a corresponding map. On the other hand, in the simulated running mode, the user can experience a simulated running of the movable body on a display screen, along with a map which the user can select from stored map data or which is automatically selected by the system when the user designates a start point by a key operation. The user selects the simulated running mode in an attempt, for example, to experience in advance a simulated running from the start point to a destination point on the display screen.
However, in the conventional simulated running mode, the user has to scroll the displayed map using a cursor on the display screen. As appreciated, this manual operation of the cursor forces the user to do other than driving the movable body, which would raise a serious problem in view of safety and thus should be improved.